Minusplusminus consists of designer duo MartijnMellema and Emanuel Engelen. Each of their practiceshas a focus on Smart Materials. With the In4nite IIproject arose the opportunity to further examine thismaterial’s potentialities, as well as to develop an actualproduct from this investigation.Minusplusminus’ primary goal is to bring about acontrolled form of self-generated motion from withinthe Colback® material.

The material qualities that werediscovered along the way form the guiding principlesfor their final design. They have found that, within manycourses and lines of study, there is an incredibly limitedview of what Smart Materials are and how they canbe applied—creations rarely venture beyond existingborders. There is still so much to be discovered!

Minusplusminus consists of designer duo Martijn Mellema and Emanuel Engelen. Each of their practices has a focus on Smart Materials. With the In4nite IIproject arose the opportunity to further examine this material’s potentialities, as well as to develop an actual product from this investigation. Minusplusminus’ primary goal is to bring about a controlled form of self-generated motion from within the Colback® material.

The material qualities that were discovered along the way form the guiding principlesfor their final design. They have found that, within many courses and lines of study, there is an incredibly limited view of what Smart Materials are and how they can be applied—creations rarely venture beyond existing borders. There is still so much to be discovered!

Martijn and Emanuel couldn’t think of anythingmore fascinating than to generate movement in amaterial that is typically static. As such, their primarygoal became to make Colback® move by itself in acontrolled manner. This was made possible by theemployment of a shape memory alloy that is basedon nickel, titanium and copper, which they embeddedin the material. The result is that Colback® canchange shape on demand by stimulating thematerial electrically.

The combination of Colback® fused with a shapememory alloy forms the basics of a modular,two- dimensional plane, which is composed ofseparately controllable units. The two-dimensionalplane consists of a memory alloy and the highperformance textile of Low & Bonar Colback®,and takes on a three- dimensional shape wheninformation is projected onto the plane, whichstimulates the material’s actuators

Martijn and Emanuel couldn’t think of anything more fascinating than to generate movement in a material that is typically static. As such, their primary goal became to make Colback move by itself in a controlled manner. This was made possible by the employment of a shape memory alloy that is based on nickel, titanium and copper, which they embedded in the material.

The result is that Colback can change shape on demand by stimulating the material electrically. The combination of Colback fused with a shape memory alloy forms the basics of a modular, two-dimensional plane, which is composed of separately controllable units. The two-dimensional plane consists of a memory alloy and the high performance textile of Low and Bonar Colback, and takes on a three- dimensional shape when information is projected onto the plane, which timulates the material’s actuators.

The Almost Magic Carpet consists of Colback material fused with a shape memory alloy. Combined, they form a modular, two-dimensional plane composed of separately controllable units. By using a shape memory alloy that is based on nickel, titanium and copper, electrical stimulus enables the Colback to change shape on demand.

The Almost Magic Carpet consists of Colback material fused with a shape memory alloy. Combined, they form a modular, two-dimensional plane composed of separately controllable units. By using a shape memory alloy that is based on nickel, titanium and copper, electrical stimulus enables the Colback to change shape on demand.

Meet the designer

Meet the designer

NameMinusplusminus - Martijn Mellema & Emanuel Engelen

ProductA two-dimensional plane that consists of a shape memory alloy and Colback

Materials used

Colback

Shape memory alloy

Magnets

Techniques used

Systematic methods that influence Colback to work with shape memory alloy